Tag Archive: Joel Kinnaman

The original film is amazing and no one is saying it isn’t. Personally to me the original Robocop is a classic for me. I’m not going to compare the remake to the original too much because it simply wouldn’t be fair. I’m usually pretty anti-remake but in this case I think a series of Robocop movies would be awesome. The plot is pretty basic, a Detroit policeman starts digging too deep into a case and finds himself targeted, after the attempt on his life a morally corrupt company named Omnicorp spends billions to turn him into a part man/mostly robot cop. Once on the street Robocop tries to solve his own murder while trying to connect with his wife and son and dealing with what he has become.

What makes this movie solid is the actors on the screen. Joel Kinnaman is exactly a big name but he stood out on AMC’s “The Killing” and here he brings a good balance to Robocop. Abbie Cornish plays his wife and I’ve always liked her, here she doesn’t get a lot to chew on, she mainly cries but still with even the little she had to do you believed her emotions, you briefly understood how weird it would be to have a loved one return to you, but his body be something completely different. Gary Oldman plays the scientist who puts Robocop together, every scene he’s in has depth. The best is when he’s in the same room with Michael Keaton who plays the CEO of Omnicorp. When they play off each other it’s just amazing to watch.

A stand out moment is Samuel L. Jackson plays a Glenn Beck type who essentially works for Omnicorp and is pushing for America to allow robot police patrol the streets of crime infested streets. He book ends the movie and it’s a weird breath of fresh air in this movie. Most of the 80’s remakes have stepped away from camp or any political message, it’s nice to see this film at least attempt it.

Director Jose Padilha does a solid job with the look of the film. We never really see Detroit is full and never get a taste of how bad the crime is, yet when Robocop is in action the choices he makes for the scenes are always spot on. For a PG-13 rated film the action scenes are intense, things move fast of course because they tried to avoid seeing any blood. The only problem this film has really is the pacing, it’s trying to tell two stories at once and it messes things up. The more interesting story of Murphy reconnecting with his family is curbed for him trying to get revenge, oddly though his revenge story isn’t the final action piece. Keaton’s CEO rapidly forms as the main villain. I hate when movies can’t decide what they want to be so they split the story. Here it hurts the film badly. I still want to see this become a franchise. The original Robocop is a classic but the sequel is crazy in a fun way but not great and the third film was a disaster. This material deserves a series and I hope it gets it.